A Light in the Dark
by WelcometohotelCortezxxx
Summary: Having seen in their own realm the true evil of the ancestresses, the Trix are forced to turn to the light. When the Winx discover this, they protect them. But can this last? Can Musa deal with Darcy and Riven's childhood friendship, and the insistence of Darcy's mother that they marry? Can Icy cope with not only being near Bloom, but risking her life for her? Can they all survive?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: detention

The room flooded with light as Flora yanked open the flowery green curtains, her bubbly voice making Bloom grin sheepishly as she pulled herself up sleepily from her cluttered bed, tumbling comically onto the rug, flapping her arms as they tangled in her flam-red hair. The sleep still in her eyes and feeling the softness of the blue rug on her face, she stayed there, trying to pull an imaginary blanket over her head.

Flora giggled and, waving her fingers in a sparkling cloud, watched as her favourite creeper plant beside her bed grew up the wall and climbed down to where Bloom was sleeping soundly on the floor; and ticked her awake. Flora was in fits, but if looks could kill, Bloom's poisonous expression would have floored her.

Laughing lightly, Flora's face took on a quizzical look. "Hey, what time is your detention, sweetie?"

"Uh, 10:30. Why?" she replied, suddenly looking horrified. It was already 10:18, and Griselda was expecting her. Bloom leapt up from the floor and threw the mountain of books, clothes and bags off her chair. At the very bottom were what she was searching for: her blue trousers and top. Hurriedly pulling them on, hoping to God they were on the right way around, she grabbed her bag and mumbled a goodbye to Flora, stumbling from the room.

Flora supressed another giggle at the torrent of shirts and textbooks littering the floor on Bloom's side of the room. She thought absently about finding the rest of the girls, but she wasn't willing to risk waking Musa or Layla up, so she retreated to her bed, hoping Tecna would come to find her when she could figure out how to not wake Layla up when she left the room.

Stella was – surprisingly – already there waiting when Bloom showed up, skidding to a halt outside the library. Stella had a frown between her drawn on eyebrows and she was uncharacteristically quiet, so Bloom thought 'best not talk to her yet'. Griselda was overseeing their detention, so God knew what was in store for them. They walked through the ancient wooden door – and stopped. Griselda stood with her arms crossed, talking her newest quill pen against her beloved clipboard. Surrounding her in towering stacks was every book from every shelf in the whole library. Together, the two girls thought 'God, we should _not_ have tried to get our own revenge on the Trix.'

A rarely seen smile crept up Griselda's thin lips when she noticed that the girls had come in, and stepped maliciously up to them, still tapping the pen. "So girls, another detention."

"It's been too long, Ms G!" Stella said, looking much too happy at her own smart-arsery.

"Quite. Be that as it may, for your little, shall we say indiscretion, at Cloud Tower last week, angered Ms Griffin highly."

"But I thought she hated those witches as much as we do?" Stella said.

"You destroyed three classrooms in her school and blew the front door off!" Griselda was hopping, reliving the memory, so Bloom stepped in.

"Yes, professor, we're sorry. We will apologise to Professor Griffin. What do you want us to do now?" Bloom said, hoping to diffuse Griselda's temper. It seemed to have worked for the moment, so Griselda put them to work sorting and cataloguing every single book Alfea owned. By themselves. Great.

The 'fiction' section of the library was very small compared to the rest but it still contained nearly 800 books. In 45 minutes they were done with it, although it was mostly Stella sitting in a chair and Bloom moaning at her to help while she sorted books. Stella even resorted to _reading_ a book once, something Bloom inwardly doubted she'd ever done before. The librarian thanked them profusely and often, grumbling whenever Griselda came in to check on them.

By about 11:30, they couldn't be sure, time passed so slowly, they'd moved onto the 'History of Magic' section, which must have contained at least 5,000 books. This area of the library was dusty like the books it housed, and Bloom cursed Griselda for sending them here for their Saturday. The 'no magic' rule had to be broken several times as the shelves rose 9 levels high, and the books weighed more than Stella did, so she left most of the heavy lifting to Bloom.

Red-faced, Bloom fluttered down from the top level of the shelves and landed with a stomp beside Stella's latest chair and said with a pouty face "Stella can you please help!? It's a detention for both of us, y'know!"

"Yeah, but it was your idea!" Stella whined, dropping the book she was pretending to read on the ground, forgetting to catalogue it, again.

Bloom muttered under her breath at her blonde best friend and recorded another book on the register. Crouching at the dwindling pile of books, she picked up another one, heavy and old with a distinct layer of dust, and looked at the cover intently. There was a picture on the front of three women, tall and skinny with straggly grey hair. She recognised them from somewhere, but she couldn't place it, and it itched in the back of her brain.

"Hey, Stell, have you seen these people anywhere before?" Bloom said. Stella leaned out of the chair and scanned the book cover. A puzzled look came over her face as she studied it, and she recoiled as Bloom realised, jumping up from where she was crouching very forcefully.

"Oh, my God, it's the ancestresses! I knew I recognised them, this must be them before they, sort of, died." Bloom exclaimed, dropping the book with a thud onto the carpet. She couldn't resist the temptation; she opened the book on the first page, and began to read.

The Ancestral witches can be traced back to over 12,000 years ago, as the absolute source of evil. Originally from the realm of Whisperia, they ruled over this realm for many thousands of years, until the decided to turn their sights elsewhere.

Since the beginning of their long lives, they have been opposed by the great dragon and her legacy: the Dragon Flame, but have only recently gone to battle with it, In 1998, they attacked the ancient realm of Sparx, destroying it and everyone living there.

Bloom stopped reading, a tear running down her cheek. Stella sighed and put a hand on her arm. "It's okay, sweetie. We'll put it right, one day."

"I know, Stell." Bloom smiled at her best friend and laughed at herself. It shocked her that it still upset her after nearly 3 years of knowing who she was. Bloom sat up and said, suddenly wondering "Wait, I wonder what happened to Whisperia. I've never heard of that realm before."

"Oh, I have. It still exists, but apparently it's very secretive, no-one really goes there, or goes out of there." Stella explained. "Anyway, keep reading. What does it day about them most recently? Anything about what happened to your realm, anymore, I mean?"

For many years after the Ancestral Witches deserted their realm, their descendants continued to rule over it. They produced a long line of kings and queens, but, it didn't end well for their line. In 2003, the most recently born descendants of the witches vanished from their realm and parents, and no more has been heard of them.

Bloom stopped again, thinking this time. What if…

The girls looked fixedly at each other, wondering.

"Do you think it could be-" Stella's pensive voice was cut off by a clap of lightening, making the two girls flinch back from the source. As the smoke cleared, they strained their eyes to make out the figures before them: three of them, pale and straggly, mud and small stains of blood covering their shocked faces. One of them coughed and spluttered the word "Help."

"It can't be-" Bloom's raspy voice whispered. But it was.

It was the Trix.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

Bloom stared open mouthed at the three girls standing in front of her. It was the Trix, alright. Bloody and very ragged, but definitely them. Stella's eyes widened as the girls stepped forward unsteadily. "What the hell?!" she exclaimed, and the look on Icy's face was something Bloom never thought she's see anywhere near that cold-hearted witch: fear.

"What happened to you three?" Bloom asked, annoyed at herself that there was sarcasm in her voice.

"W-we went…" Darcy tried to explain, but the clattering of the library door cut her off. Faragonda bustled into the circular room, followed quickly by Griselda, a scowl falling over her face. Faragonda's face took on a pasty quality when she saw the witches in the middle of the room, looking on the verge of tears, if they could cry real tears.

"What are they doing here?!" Griselda shrieked, tapping her clipboard rapidly with the bowing quill.

"We-" Icy tried again to explain where her sister had failed, but that was as far as she got before her words failed her.

"Its' alright, girls," Faragonda's kind voice surprised even Bloom, who had never doubted her headmistress. "I've seen what happened. Follow me. Bloom, you come too."

Leaving Stella dumbfounded, but at least let off the rest of her detention, the headmistress and Bloom hurried from the room, ushering the trembling witches out with them. They traipsed in silence to her office down the hall, and the mood lifted immediately when they reached it.

It was sunny and light inside, with bright furniture and clean, vibrant walls. Everything in there was immaculate and perfectly sorted; and the air felt immeasurably lighter. Bloom let out a relived sigh, realising she'd been holding her breath since leaving the library. Faragonda invited the Trix to sit down in front of her desk, and they obeyed silently. Bloom found herself standing, and was unable to stop herself asking "What's going on?" and instantly regretted her forwardness.

"I thought this might happen eventually. Let me just get their story straight in my head, Bloom, and I'll answer your questions." Faragonda smiled at Bloom, looking happy but at least 20 years older than she was.

"So, if I'm right, you returned to your own realm this morning? Latest mission sent you there, and you maybe tried to find out a bit more about where you came from apart from the whole ancestresses thing?" Faragonda paused and the girls nodded woodenly. "Okay, and what happened then?"

"They, uh, the ancestresses followed us there and attacked the city. They, they attacked us too. We didn't know where else to come, we can't face Griffin again." Darcy explained. She'd calmed down the most since they'd arrived at Alfea, and she was able to speak breathily now.

"Whisperia" Bloom said.

"What?" Icy looked up from Faragonda's desk, the usual hatred was frozen onto her face; but something else was there too… Relief?

"Me and Stella found a book on it. We were just reading it when you showed up. It said the… No way!"

"Yes, Bloom. That's right. I'm surprised you girls haven't asked how I knew about all this already." Faragonda said, nodding her head almost imperceptibly.

"Yeah, how _did_ you know?" Stormy's voice was hoarse and quiet but in the tangible silence the words were all too loud. Faragonda's face was nervous and much whiter than usual, but it remained as determined as ever as she turned to face the window, as if she couldn't bear to tell it to their faces. She took a breath.

"Clearly you knew for a while that your realm of origin was Whisperia, how could you not? However, there is another, ahem, detail, that has been kept from you for many years. I have been in touch with an old friend a lot recently, and I want you to meet her. Bloom, our guest is waiting in the foyer, if you would be so kind as to bring her here, please?" Faragonda stopped abruptly, as if suddenly forgetting the end of her sentence. Bloom nodded and hurried fretfully from the headmistress's office.

"Who?" Icy asked forcefully. The silence was deafening and, as much as they wish they could, there was no way the witches could have misheard her.

"Your mother."

The foyer of Alfea was grand and beautiful, but now seemed very confusing to Bloom, as if nothing fit properly. What the hell were they doing here? Why would the ancestresses attack the only allies they had? Who was this woman she was going to meet? Questions were whizzing through Bloom's mind so quickly that she almost rushed past the woman standing distractedly beside the magnificent double staircase, thinking deeply.

When Bloom came up to her, unsure of whether to interrupt her thoughts or not, the woman looked up and smiled kindly at Bloom, pulling her into a tight hug like her mother did on Earth. Confused, Bloom looked dazedly at her when she was finally released. The woman gasped quietly to herself and laughed.

"Oh I am sorry my dear, I'm quite sure you don't know who I am!" the woman said dizzily.

"No, I'm sorry, I don't" she replied, still looking wondering at the woman, who brunette hair was pulled up into a sort of plaited bun that even Stella wouldn't attempt. Who could she possibly be?

"Of course, you wouldn't, it's been so long! I'm Dorothy, I'm here for my daughters, at last; I thought they'd never be ready!" she stopped talking, but Bloom was clearly expecting a little more explanation, so she carried on shakily.

"Oh, yes, I was a friend of your parents, my how you've grown, Bloom! That beautiful red hair! So sad, your parents, I miss them." Bloom looked stunned. This was the first person she'd met apart from Faragonda who mentioned her parents to her face, and she appreciated it a lot. Still puzzled by the airy personality of this woman, she asked the only thing she could think of: "Who are your daughters?"

"Oh, it's been so long since I've seen them! My oldest is called Icy, and the younger two are Darcy and Stormy. You know them?"

Bloom couldn't believe what she was hearing. This woman seemed so… normal, so non-threatening, she couldn't be the Trix's mother! Realising she was just standing there, staring open-mouthed at _Dorothy_, Bloom shook herself and led the woman up the staircase to Faragonda's office, where she hoped Faragonda would make some sense out of this suddenly much more complex puzzle.

"Our mother?!" Darcy said disbelievingly, her eyes widening as she stared at the headmistress.

"Yes, your mother. Queen of Whisperia, and personal friend of mine. She was in the Company of Light, you know?" Faragonda said flippantly.

"What? Our own mother fought against us?" Icy said breathily, an unexpected tone of hurt in her voice.

"No, not against you. Against the ancestral witches. I'll explain everything when she gets here. Bloom should be back with her any-" The door clattered shut and Bloom scurried back in, followed by the dreamy looking brown-haired woman in a beautifully intricate dress. Her face filled with a beam as bright as the sun when she saw her girls, grown up and in front of her again after so long.

The four girls were totally dumbfounded, their faces blank, so Faragonda tentatively made her introductions. "Girls, this is Dorothy, she's your mother. She's been waiting a long time to see you again." Dorothy stepped closer to where the witches were sitting with looks of complete mesmerisation on their faces. They all stood up together, and Dorothy pulled them into a hug tighter than she'd done with Bloom – if that was possible – the motherly instinct in her coming out immediately.

"Dorothy, as much as I hate to interrupt this joyous reunion, I don't believe we have a lot of time; if you would tell them the story, it would be much appreciated." Faragonda said nervously.

"Uh, yes of course Faragonda," Dorothy said, releasing the witches from her tight grip and smoothing down their tangled hair. "Ok, ooh, where to start. After Sparx was attacked, I was afraid they would attack our realm, too, after I turned my back on them. You were only children, so I sent you away. Broke my heart to do it, but you know what happened to Sparx. I had no idea where I'd sent you, and I wish I'd risked it when I found out. I'd sent you to, God knows how – no-one meant to be able to get in - to Obsidian. The witches basically raised you, if you can call it that, the way they wanted you to be. I couldn't go and find you, so I just hoped you realised how evil they were on your own one day, and have the sense to abandon them while you still could. And you did. How?"

"We went back to Whisperia this morning." Stormy told her, the only words she was able to get out.

"And they attacked us, They sent us there on some kind of mission, they wanted us to get something, a stone or something like that, I think it was. They destroyed everything, so got the hell out of there." Darcy said. All the witches were staring blankly at their mother, trying to wrap their minds around it. Bloom knew they were much smarter than people gave them credit for, but even she thought it was a lot for them to take in. Hadn't she been in this position not long ago?

Oh God.

Was she feeling _sorry_ for the people who had made her life miserable the last 3 years?!

Icy, who had been very quiet and looking very pale in the last 10 minutes, cut into Bloom's thought, asking what should have probably been said before now "What did you mean 'we don't have a lot of time'?"

Faragonda looked aggrieved as she was hit with the question she had clearly been dreading. Running her shaking fingers through her hair, she turned to face the three witches and said "You abandoned the ancestresses, and clearly they already have some reason for attacking you. My guess is they've realised that the only way you," she pointed at Bloom, who shook herself out of her daze "can stop them is by combining both your powers. Together, they represent all magic and balance in the universe. "

The witches' jaws dropped to the floor when Faragonda told them this, because they knew it only could mean one thing: they'd have to stay here, with the pixies. And work with them. It did make sense, they thought, anything that meant they were away from the ancestral witches and their soul-sucking evil.

"So, what do we do now?" Stormy asked.

"Well we can't go back home, not yet, it's all in ruins. But, if Faragonda will let us, maybe we can stay here?" Dorothy replied, nodding her head at the headmistress.

"Yes, of course. They can stay with you and your friends, Bloom. I know you haven't gotten along well in the past, but the time for petty rivalries is over." Faragonda's voice was firm but it never lost its kindness as she led Bloom out of the room. In her mind, they weren't 'petty rivalries', but Faragonda was usually right, so she stayed quiet.

Dorothy pulled her daughters in for a hug again, holding their hands in a circle. "My baby girls." She said, a sad smile on her lips and a tear running down her cheeks. Whatever those witches had done to her babies, she'd make it go away.

"I'm glad you're back, mom." Icy said. Her sisters had never seen this side of her before, her face was soft and her usually mean eyes were melting. They liked this side if her better, you didn't like Icy when she was mad.

The girls reluctantly followed their mother from the room, still dazed from the day's events, but finally finding life much easier and _much_ less dangerous, even though it was probably the opposite; finding Bloom and Faragonda waiting outside. "Okay, Bloom, you can take it from here?"

"Absolutely, Headmistress. C'mon, you three." Bloom said, gesturing down the hall to the dorms. She mentally pictured the look on Stella's face, probably still fuming from her 'detention' which she did none of.

Bloom set off purposefully, but stopped when she realised the Trix weren't following her, they were embraced in their mother's arms again. A small tears rolled down Bloom's' face as she thought of her own parents, feeling stupidly oblivious to the fact that the witches had never had parents that the fairies knew of, and they'd never bothered to find out. It suddenly occurred to Bloom that, however evil and horrible the Trix seemed, they were human girls with no-one but each other. 'At least I have my girls, but they had no friends' thought Bloom as she watched the witches really smiling for the first time since she'd met them. 'Maybe this won't be so bad, maybe they are kind of nice after all…'

Faragonda retreated back into her office, and Dorothy released her girls, following her friend. The witches, still slightly absent from the situation, followed Bloom quickly down the hallways that wound around the school, until they arrived at the triple dorm the Winx shared. Bloom opened the door and stood against it, waiting for the witches to go through. They entered quietly and with no sarcasm or quips, having yet to regain – Bloom was certain they would regain it – their scornful personalities.

The clanking of the closing door made Musa get up and investigate. She skidded around the corner expecting Bloom back with news, no doubt Stella had told everyone she laid eyes on; and stopped, with a look of horror and bewilderment on her face.

"Look who we found." Said Bloom.


	3. little break

Hey, I really love writing this story, and to everyone who has said they want to know more, I can't wait to write more. Everything so hectic right now, but I'll get back to it ASAP


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The small light in the corner of Faragonda's desk flickered sullenly in the overall darkness of her office. She sat in her chair, her head resting heavily on her quivering hand. It had been a long day, and another one looked poised to rear its ugly head.

That morning seemed decades ago to her now, flicking through old books and papers. She'd been sat at that very desk when she'd felt it, a wave of dark energy, crushing and endless, across the whole school, spreading through the realm, and the universe. She'd know for a long time, since Dorothy had left the Company of Light and fled back to her own realm to escape the ancestral wrath; that the day would come that the witches would attack their own realm, would show how far they were really willing to go to be totally unopposed.

She'd known then what had happened, and she'd rushed to her striking crystal ball, all seeing and delicate and taking pride of place in the corner of the office, atop a golden stand that it fitted perfectly. She'd seen Whisperia almost as she remembered it: gothic buildings in black and grey brick, strangely beautiful but haunting, lawns and flowers, and people in robes, suits and dresses hurrying through the streets. But it was smouldering. Fires burnt everywhere, and rubble of the houses flooded into the streets, smoke billowing from every available outlet. It was a shadow of the splendid place it used to be, and Faragonda shed a silent tear.

But then she saw something that caught her eye. Three young girls that she knew all too well, but she never thought they'd be in the receiving end of their own dark magic. Icy, Darcy and Stormy being forced to run from the witches who had raised them was something Faragonda knew would happen, and she'd begged Griffin not to expel them from Cloud Tower, she knew they'd never be safe on their own, but she hadn't listened.

She had known they'd show up in her school the moment she saw them being attacked. She'd wondered where Dorothy had run to after her realm was destroyed. Of course. Griffin would have been her first port of call.

Covering her crystal ball, unable to watch the carnage any longer, Faragonda wrapped her heavy cloak around her increasingly thin shoulders and uttered a spell in a long-dead language, feeling the child-like excitement she felt the first time she cast a teleportation spell fill her as she vanished into the air around her.

She reformed seconds later, already being assaulted by the spitting rain, at the foot of the winding stairway leading to the door of the dark, purple-bricked school in a constant lightning storm. She climbed the stairs, an arduous task but she was resolute, and forced herself all the way to the top, where another quick spell opened the door. It was heavy and creaked eerily as it finally clanged to a stop. She put her head down and marched brusquely through the hallways to Griffin's office. She moved to knock, but Griffin was already on the other side, opening it for her. As if this was normal, Faragonda stepped through the door and sat in her usual chair. As she expected, Dorothy was sat in a chair in the corner of the room, looking very upset and extremely flustered, but safe from the witches.

"Dorothy, I need you to tell me what's been happening on Whisperia, I've seen pieces of it, but it's important we know the whole story." Faragonda said, leaving Dorothy looking confused, but she stuttered out an answer anyway.

"I was sat at home, and I heard people shouting in the street. I walk out onto the balcony to see what was happening, and the sky was completely dark, even though it was the middle of the day, and then they appeared out of nowhere. They blew half the city to the ground."

"My God. I'm glad you came here, Dorothy." Griffin said, placing a hand on her arm.

"As am I, but I believe you may have missed something, Dorothy dear." Said Faragonda, gearing herself up to deliver the news.

"Oh yes?" Dorothy asked.

"Yes. In my crystal ball, I happened to catch a glimpse of your daughters, running from the very people you gave them up to." Faragonda said, regretting her comment immediately; Dorothy's face took on a thunderous look and her upper lip curled violently.

"I did _not_ 'give them up' to those hateful witches, I sent them away to protect them, I had no idea what I was doing!" her voice reverberated around the room and both women recoiled from her slightly. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, banishing the returning feeling of dread when she'd discovered where she'd sent her precious girls; afraid of what they would become.

Faragonda was mentally horrified at her own childish petulance. She'd tried to expel the childhood rivalry between them for many years, and for many years it had continued to thrive secretly in their minds. Now, she was disturbed that it had made her say such a vile thing to her friend. Shaking her head, Faragonda stood quickly and motioned for the two witches to leave with her, breaking the thick silence.

"We must be quick, Dorothy, I believe the Trix, as they have been so affectionately named by my fairies, will not be long arriving at Alfea."

"We have, uh, one more thing to deal with here before if leave her to you, my dear. I will send her over when it is done." Griffin replied, more clipped than Faragonda would have liked. She nodded curtly, and rushed off.

It was going to be a very long day.


End file.
